Contact:
Morgan Schwanky
Michigan Municipal League
[email protected], 734-669-6320
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 19, 2022
ANN ARBOR, Michigan – Huntington Woods Commissioner and former Michigan Municipal League Board President Jeff Jenks recently received the Jim Sinclair Exceptional Service Award from the League.
The Sinclair Award celebrates a person dedicated to public service who has shown passion and commitment to the League, enthusiastically supporting its mission, and promoting its purpose.
“On behalf of all League staff, I would like to congratulate Jeff on receiving this award.” said Dan Gilmartin, CEO and executive director of the League. “I have worked with Jeff for years, including when he served as our Board President. It has been a pleasure to see the impact he has created on Michigan’s communities. Additionally, his service to the Huntington Woods community makes this award very well-deserved and earned.”
Jeff Jenks has been working in public service since 1958, and has served as a commissioner for the City of Huntington Woods since 1999. Then-Mayor Ron Gillham took Jenks to the Ann Arbor and Lansing MML offices, a day after he took office, and introduced him to staff. Since then, Jenks said that he has taken advantage of every opportunity to learn, lead, serve and benefit his community, the region, and the state.
Additional leadership opportunities came from SEMCOG, as an Executive Committee member for 18 years, a Taubman Fellow who completed Harvard Kennedy’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Executive Education program (2007), and chairing SEMCOG (2015-16). With the MML he has served on committees for years, was president from 2009 to 10, became an Honorary Life Member (2014), has been involved with the Michigan Black Caucus of Local Elected Leaders (MBC-LEO), and in 2018 attained the highest level of the MML’s Elected Officials Academy (EOA)–the EOA Level 4 Ambassador.
The Sinclair Award was presented during this year’s Michigan Municipal League Convention taking place in Muskegon.
“I met Jim Sinclair shortly after election at an MML event, and he was both welcoming us and encouraging us to take every bit of training possible, and I did, both in Michigan and nationally,” Jenks said. “As MML President I saw even more municipal leagues and quickly saw that the MML is unique in its continuing skills shared with us, the way it treats trainings, grows its own staff, and their compassion and skills that they provide to us. The MML is always forward looking, and they continually show us how to achieve new ideas, which make all our communities in Michigan a better place to live in. Thank you MML.”
Download and view photos from our award winners on the League’s flickr page here.
For additional information contact the League’s Morgan Schwanky, Content Developer, Marketing and Communications, at (734) 669-6320 and [email protected].
Michigan Municipal League is dedicated to making Michigan’s communities better by thoughtfully innovating programs, energetically connecting ideas and people, actively serving members with resources and services, and passionately inspiring positive change for Michigan’s greatest centers of potential: its communities. The League advocates on behalf of its member communities in Lansing, Washington, D.C., and the courts; provides educational opportunities for elected and appointed municipal officials; and assists municipal leaders in administering services to their communities through League programs and services. Learn more at mml.org.
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